Containers



May 7, 1963 R. w. E. MOSSE CONTAINERS Filed June 21, 1961 InventorRicHARD W. E. Moss Atlorneys Unite States Patent Ofiice 3,088,644Patented May 7, 1963 3,088,644 CONTAINERS Richard Wolfgang Emil Mosse,London, England, as-

signor to The Metal Box Company Limited, London,

England, a British company Filed June 21, 1961, Ser. No. 118,706 Claimspriority, application Great Britain July 1, 1960 2 Claims. (Cl. 229-25)This invention relates to containers and in particular to mouldedpacking trays for graded eggs or other fragile or easily damagedarticles.

When eggs or fruit are graded, usually according to size, they leave thegrading machine on belts one of which is appropriate to each grade andare packed into moulded packing trays which may be moulded frompapier-mache or from plastic material.

If the articles are to be retained in the trays without any cover beingplaced around the trays, the trays usually bear printed matter whichstates the grade of articles contained in the trays. When, however, thetrays are to be contained in an outer wrapper which is automaticallyplaced around the trays the grade indication which is to be visible tothe customer is printed on the outer wrapper.

The trays are all of uniform size irrespective of the grade of articlespacked therein and it is therefore possible for a single wrappingmachine to effect wrapping of all trays. The trays may, however, bedelivered to the wrapping machine in haphazard order as regards thegrade of articles contained therein and it must be possible for thewrapping machine to distinguish automatically the difference between thegrades of articles fed thereto in order that the trays are wrapped bythe machine in the outer wrappers appropriate to the grade of articlescontained in the trays.

It is a main object of the present invention to provide moulded packingtrays for articles of the kind mentioned above, which trays are providedwith means indicative of the grade of the articles contained therein andwhich can be sensed by a wrapping machine to ensure that the machineautomatically wraps each tray in an outer wrapper appropriate to thegrade of article contained in the tray.

According to the invention there is provided a moulded packing tray foreggs or other fragile or easily damaged articles comprising a pluralityof connected pockets each to receive one article, wherein at least oneside of the tray is contoured to indicate the grade of articles packedin the tray and to co-operate with automatic sensing devices arranged toeffect the selection of a wrapper within which the tray is to be'located.

In one embodiment of the invention the tray is a substantially oblongrectangular tray and each of two opposite sides of the tray aresimilarly contoured to indicate the grade of articles packed in thetray.

The grade-indicating contour may include two substantially verticalportions of the side, or of each said side, which are located one abovethe other with one of the portions nearer than the other to the centreof the tray.

In order that the invention may be clearly understood some embodimentsthereof will now be described, by way of example, with reference to theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a pictorial view of a tray according to the invention,

FIG. 2 is a section on line IIII, FIG. 1, and

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2 but of an alternative embodiment ofthe invention.

Referring to the drawings, the tray 1 is moulded from papier-mache orfrom plastic material in known manner and as is usual contains aplurality of interconnected pockets 2 in which the articles are locatedwhen packed into the trays.

Preferably the trays are of substantially oblong rectangular shape andin accordance with the invention at least one side 3 of a marginalportion 4 integral with the pockets is moulded to have a contour whichis indicative of the grade of articles to be packed in the trays. Itwill be understood that the trays will be fed in one direction to awrapping machine and to avoid the necessity of orienting the trays eachof two opposite sides 3, 5 of the trays are similarly contoured toindicate the grade of the articles packed therein.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention the contoured sides of atray are formed during the moulding of the tray and each contoured sideconsists of two substantially vertical portions 6, 7 of the side whichare located one above the other with one of the portions, that is theportion 6, nearer than the other to the centre of the tray, thecontoured side thus being of stepped formation as shown clearly in FIGS.2 and 3. With this arrangement, and assuming that trays are to beproduced to distinguish between two grades of articles, for examplebetween large and standard size eggs, one grade of article will beindicated by the upper of the two side portions, FIG. 3, being furtherfrom the centre of the tray than the lower side portion, and the othergrade will be indicated by the lower of the two side portions, FIG. 2,being nearer to the centre of the tray than the upper portion. Thecontouring may extend along the full length of the side 3 or 5, asappropriate, of the tray.

As the loaded tray 1 is fed to the wrapping machine one of the contouredsides 3, 5 of the tray is moved past a pair of electric micro-switches,not shown, which are spaced apart lengthwise of the path of the tray andwhich are arranged in horizontal planes disposed one over the other sothat the actuating plungers of the switches are arranged one to beengaged by a contoured side the lower portion 7 of which is farthestfrom the centre of the tray, and one by an upper contoured side portion7 which is farthest from the centre of a tray.

Operation of the micro-switches by the trays is utilised in any suitablemanner to control the feeding of a wrapper from one or other ofmagazines appropriate thereto so that the appropriate wrapper is fed bythe machine to receive the tray which ordered the feeding of thewrapper.

Thus it will be understood that by the present invention there areprovided trays which present a visual indication of the grade ofarticles contained, or to be contained, therein and also an indicationwhich can be sensed automatically to control the selection of a wrapperin which the tray is to be located.

I claim:

1. A packing tray for eggs or other fragile or easily damaged articlescomprising a plurality of connected moulded pockets and an oblongrectangular horizontal marginal portion one side of which is of steppedformation presenting two substantially vertical faces extending alongthe length of said side with one of the vertical faces nearer than theother to the centre of the tray to provide an indication of the grade ofarticles packed in the tray.

2. A packing tray for eggs or other fragile or easily damaged articlescomprising a plurality of connected moulded pockets and an oblongrectangular horizontal marginal portion each of two opposite sides ofWhich is of stepped formation presenting two substantially verticalfaces extending along the length of the side with one of the verticalfaces nearer than the other to the centre of the tray to provide anindication of the grade of articles packed in the tray.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,863,683 Bowles June 21, 1932 1,868,563 Cicourel July 26-, 19322,600,130 Schilling June 10, 1952

1. A PACKING TRAY FOR EGGS OR OTHER FRAGILE OR EASILY DAMAGED ARTICLESCOMPRISING A PLURALITY OF CONNECTED MOULDED POCKETS AND AN OBLONGRECTANGULAR HORIZONTAL MARGINAL PORTION ONE SIDE OF WHICH IS OF STEPPEDFORMATION PRESENTING TWO SUBSTANTIALLY VERTICAL FACES EXTENDING ALONGTHE LENGTH OF SAID SIDE WITH ONE OF THE VERTICAL FACES NEARER THAN THEOTHER TO THE CENTRE OF THE TRAY TO PROVIDE AN INDICATION OF THE GRADE OFARTICLES PACKED IN THE TRAY.